With electronic motion picture cameras, the taken wanted signal is usually displayed as a monitor image in an electronic viewfinder or on a screen attached to the camera. The taken image reproduced in this manner serves, for example, for the control of the sharpness. An electronic viewfinder has the disadvantage that the environment of the taken image cannot be observed. Potentially disturbing objects outside the taken image section can thus not be recognized before they move into the taken image. Viewfinders which are based on electronic displays are above all limited with respect to the reproduction quality.
Motion picture cameras are also known which are provided with an optical viewfinder. With these cameras, some of the light current detected by the optical receiving system is led into an optical system which is connected in parallel to the taking sensor and which indicates the same taken image for the cameraman which is also recorded by the taking sensor. A high image quality of the viewfinder can hereby be achieved. It is, however, disadvantageous that no additional image information can be made available to the cameraman.